Government

B. Traven

Nov 2020 · Jungle Novels Book 1 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About this ebook

Government is the first installment of B. Traven's legendary Jungle Novels, a series of six books detailing the oppression and subsequent uprising of the Mexican Revolution.

The story follows Don Gabriel, a bureaucratic official in an isolated government outpost in a remote village. He comes to oversees the enslavement of Indians and ships them off to forced labor on the mahogany plantations owned by foreign investors. The impassionate but illiterate Indians and the corrupt political officials collide in a riveting conclusion in this first volume of the critically acclaimed but overlooked work from the late pseudonymous writer who has come "... to be recognized as one of the narrative masters of the twentieth century." (The New York Times)"

About the author

B. Traven (1882-1969) is the pen name of the most enigmatic writer of the twentieth century. His other aliases include Hal Croves, Traven Torsvan and Ret Marut. Born in Germany, Traven spent much of his adult life in Mexico. He once wrote, "I shall always and at all times prefer to be pissed on by dogs than reveal who I am." He has sold over thirty million books, in over thirty languages. Film adaptations of his work include The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which won 3 Oscars, Macario, the first Oscar nominated Mexican film, and The Death Ship, a cult classic in Germany. He is a model for Archimboldi, the hero of Roberto Bolaño's 2666.